Identify the role first
The subject names the person or thing around which the action or state is organised. In a simple statement, it usually comes before the verb: she works, they know, it helps.
An object is a participant or thing involved in the action or relationship: she knows him, they call us, I work with her. It does not necessarily literally “receive” anything.
A reliable sequence is to identify the pronoun’s role first and then choose the form. Its position near a verb helps, but the sentence’s meaning and structure matter more than mechanically finding a neighbouring word.
subject pronoun + verb … verb/preposition + object pronoun
- subject / S —
- The grammatical subject: who or what the clause is about; the verb agrees with it. In The book was written, the book is the subject, although someone else does the action.
- verb / V —
- A word for an action or state, such as work or be. The pattern determines its form.
- object / O —
- Who or what an action affects: in I read a book, a book is the object.
- preposition —
- A word showing a relationship, such as in, on or from: from Ukraine.
- pronoun —
- A word used instead of naming a person or thing: I, you, she, it, they.
She knows him.
She knows him.
She is the subject of knows, and him is the object of that verb.
They work with us.
They work with us.
They is the subject; after the preposition with, the object form us is needed.
Seven pairs of forms
The complete set of pairs is I → me, you → you, he → him, she → her, it → it, we → us, they → them. The form on the left is for the subject; the form on the right is for the object of a verb or preposition.
The spelling changes in five pairs. You cannot therefore carry a subject form into an object position: not she knows he but she knows him; not them help us but they help us.
The pronoun I is always capitalised in ordinary writing. The main learning task in this rule is to identify the role and select the corresponding form, not simply reproduce the table.
I/me · you/you · he/him · she/her · it/it · we/us · they/them
I call her after lunch.
I call her after lunch.
I identifies the speaker as the subject, while her refers to a woman as the object of call.
He often visits me.
He often visits me.
He performs the action; me identifies the person involved as the object of visits.
You and it do not change spelling
You has the same form for one listener or several, and for subject or object. In You help me, you is the subject; in I can help you, it is the object.
It does not change either. In It works, the pronoun is the subject; in I use it, it is the object. Identical spelling does not mean an identical syntactic role.
To identify the role of you or it, ask whether the pronoun is the subject of its clause or depends on a verb or preposition.
You can take it.
You can take it.
You is the subject, and it is the object of take; both forms look unchanged.
It is for you.
It is for you.
It is the subject, while you follows for as the preposition’s object.
After a verb and after a preposition
If a personal pronoun is the object of an ordinary verb, choose me, you, him, her, it, us or them: call me, know her, invite them. Not every word after a verb is an object, so check its role.
After with, for, to, from, about, at and other prepositions, also use the object form in this role: with him, for us, to her, about them.
The pronoun must clearly refer to the intended person or thing. Number and context help: keys → them, phone → it, Maya → her, Maya and Leo → them.
Please send it to them.
Please send it to them.
It is the object of send, while them follows to; both pronouns have clear referents in the context.
We see her at work.
We see her at work.
We is the subject, her is the object of see, and at work is a separate place phrase.
Questions and negatives do not change the roles
In a question, an auxiliary can come before the subject: Does she know him? She remains a subject form and him an object form.
In a negative, the pronoun form also depends on its role, not on not: They do not know us. The subject they appears after or before the auxiliary according to sentence type, but it does not become them.
For a quick check, find the full verb phrase and its subject, then separately find the object of the verb or preposition.
Does he work with you?
Does he work with you?
He is the subject after does, while you is the object of with.
They do not call us on Sundays.
They do not call us on Sundays.
Negation does not change the pair they/us: the first pronoun is the subject, the second the object of call.
Limits of the basic rule
After be, object forms are natural in ordinary speech: It’s me, That’s him. This is a complement after be, not an ordinary object of an action; formal It is I exists, but it is not the basic A1 model.
The short informal answer Me! to Who wants tea? is also possible. It should not be labelled ungrammatical simply because the full sentence would be I do.
For coordinated subjects, the standard teaching model is Sam and I work here. Other versions occur in real informal speech; this lesson does not assess the register of coordination. Reflexive forms such as myself, herself and themselves, and possessives such as my, her and their, belong to neighbouring rules.
It’s me.
It’s me.
In neutral and informal speech, me is natural as a complement after be.
Sam and I work here.
Sam and I work here.
This is the standard pattern for a coordinated subject; a detailed comparison of registers is beyond these exercises.
Using the rule in your own speech
Start with a short map of the roles: who or what is the subject, who or what the action involves, and which preposition the pronoun follows. Then check the form against the table of pairs.
In a short text, name the person or thing first, then replace repetition with a clear pronoun. If him, her, it or them could refer to two different things or people, repeat the noun instead of using an unclear pronoun.
To check your work, underline each personal pronoun, identify its role and find its referent. A model for an open-ended answer shows one natural version, not the only permitted text.
This is Ava. She works with us, and we often call her.
This is Ava. She works with us, and we often call her.
The name first introduces the referent; she and her then show Ava’s two roles, while us/we show two roles of the speaker’s group.
The tickets are here. They are for you, so please take them.
The tickets are here. They are for you, so please take them.
They replaces tickets as the subject, them as the object of take, and you follows for.
Common mistakes
Incorrect:Me work here.
Correct:I work here.
The speaker is the subject of work, so the subject form I is needed.
Incorrect:She knows he.
Correct:She knows him.
The pronoun after knows is the verb’s object, so he changes to him.
Incorrect:We spoke to they.
Correct:We spoke to them.
The preposition to requires the object form them.
Incorrect:Him helps us every Friday.
Correct:He helps us every Friday.
At the beginning of this statement, the pronoun is the subject of helps, so he is needed; us is already correctly used as the object.